Published

SPOOON! [Author: Tick]

In the new spirit of customerservice that appears to be gripping the MMOG world lately, Verant recently announced that they would (for a hefty fee) be happy to review your requests to move from one server to another, or even split characters off of your main account onto a new account.

There are a few restrictions, of course. You can\’e2\’80\’99t go to a server that\’e2\’80\’99s less than six months old. You can\’e2\’80\’99t go to a PvP+ server if you\’e2\’80\’99re PvP-, and vice versa. Also, nobody goes to Test or to Sullon Zek.

Oh, and one little detail: if you\’e2\’80\’99re moving from server to server, you\’e2\’80\’99re making the trip naked as the day you were rolled. From EverQuest\’e2\’80\’99s character transfer page:

For moving Characters from one server to a different server, Characters will only be moved without ITEMS AND COINS. (IMPORTANT: Coins and all items will be deleted from characters before the characters are moved. This includes all items located in the character’s bank. All scribed spells will transfer with the character).

For a game in which equipment is as important as your level (if not more so), that\’e2\’80\’99s a painful price to pay to be with your friends. But according to Aradune, it\’e2\’80\’99s a necessary one:

What we don’t want are extreme power gamers hopping from one server to another, collecting ‘phat lewts’, ever in search of servers where one can ‘buy low’, and then transfering to another to ‘sell high’.

Also, players know how many high-end items are in the game, including no-drop items. We don’t want to disrupt that aspect of community either. Some players take pride in knowing they were one of the first on their server to obtain an item, and I think it might be a bummer to suddenly have someone else with that item transfer in. So that’s why we’re not allowing no-drop items to move either.

All of which is designed to protect the economies of the various servers that will be getting flooded with high level characters from, well- other servers.

But let\’e2\’80\’99s face it folks, this isn\’e2\’80\’99t going to be all about community and bringing friends closer. As heartwarming as it may be to think of that little wood elf family on Mithaniel Marr that\’e2\’80\’99s been saving their gold pieces for three months so that they can buy armor when SoulrazorX (his name was already taken, dammit) comes from the far-off lands of Fennin Ro, that\’e2\’80\’99s simply not going to be the case most of the time.

Ask yourself this: all other things being equal, who\’e2\’80\’99s it worth FIFTY DOLLARS to so they can move their character to another server where they\’e2\’80\’99re probably unknown? You guessed it:

The Cassanova: He\’e2\’80\’99s had cybersex with half of the female characters on his old server, and two-thirds of the male characters. He\’e2\’80\’99s been married more times than Eva Gabor and is always hitting on a cleric or a druid so he\’e2\’80\’99ll have a rez and a \’e2\’80\’98port ready whenever he needs it. If you\’e2\’80\’99ve got a female character, you\’e2\’80\’99ve got a friend in Cassanova.

The Bloody Know It All: He or she knows how to play your character better than you do, no matter what character it is or whether they actually have one. They\’e2\’80\’99ll tell you what spell you should be using to buff them with while they\’e2\’80\’99re completely blowing the opportunity to taunt the mob that\’e2\’80\’99s pounding your cleric to pieces. They know just where to pull to on every raid, and they don\’e2\’80\’99t hesitate to let the puller know it. Of course, what\’e2\’80\’99s worse is NOW they\’e2\’80\’99ll not only tell you how they play your race/class, they\’e2\’80\’99ll tell you how they do things on their OLD server, while going on about how \’e2\’80\’98nobody on this server knows how to play a (insert class here).\’e2\’80\’99

The Guildhopper: This person has burned bridges with every guild (uber and otherwise) on their old server, and they\’e2\’80\’99re \’e2\’80\’98just looking for a good home.\’e2\’80\’99 Problem is, within five days of being admitted to the guild, they\’e2\’80\’99re talking to the guild leader about how all the officers are wankers, and saying the same thing about the guild leader to the officers. It\’e2\’80\’99s worth fifty bucks to this person just to have somebody to talk to.

The Scam Artist: No explanation needed. Opening a trade window with this scumbucket is just asking for trouble.

Worst of all, there is the creature who is assisted perhaps most of all by the new policy… The Ebaydiot: This is the intellectual fireball who casts sentinel in Kael and wipes out an entire raid when the eye brings the Armor of Zek to the pull spot. The druid who used Gate as an evac spell. The cleric who mana dumps stun spells on the mob, lets half the group die and then says \’e2\’80\’9cIt\’e2\’80\’99s cool, I can rez.\’e2\’80\’9d

So that these rejects can have a new lawn to piss on, the prices of droppable uber weapons go through the roof, groups of level 40s are suddenly fighting with solo level 50+ characters over Hill Giants in the Rathe Mountains, and that little family that\’e2\’80\’99s been saving for some equipment for their long lost cousin\’e2\’80\’99s going to have to save a couple more months.

And you, the normal, everyday player (should you actually exist outside Verant\’e2\’80\’99s imagination) will get to deal with:

StrombladeX tells you: \’e2\’80\’9cNeed a port?\’e2\’80\’9d

You tell StrombladeX: \’e2\’80\’9cNo thanks\’e2\’80\’9d

StrombladeX tells you: \’e2\’80\’9cBuffs? Sow?\’e2\’80\’9d

You tell StrombladeX: \’e2\’80\’9cNope\’e2\’80\’9d

StrombladeX tells you: \’e2\’80\’9cGot any spare plat?\’e2\’80\’9d

You say out of character: \’e2\’80\’9cGET THIS UBER NEWB OFF ME!\’e2\’80\’9d

That ten-hour camp you were planning for uber item X might get a hell of a lot longer if some disgraced guild decides to re-form on your server; on the other hand, the cost of a rez might go down to a fine steel mace and all the copper you have on your corpse.

Of course, all of this depends on how many people decide to make the move. Fifty bucks is a lot of money for a virtual relocation; that said, the character transfer form is down, presumably because they’ve received so many requests.

Then again, ducking one\’e2\’80\’99s reputation on another server might not be as easy as waving half a C-note under Verant\’e2\’80\’99s nose; a naked 50+ character raises a few eyebrows, and people might just go looking to find out why Hunka Burninluv doesn\’e2\’80\’99t want to be on The Nameless server anymore.